


Some time against the ropes

by Carmilla



Category: Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmilla/pseuds/Carmilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“See, my problem is that Maggie always used to tell me how to deal with this stuff.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some time against the ropes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jena Bartley (jenab)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenab/gifts).



“See, my problem is that Maggie always used to tell me how to deal with this stuff,” Ben pants, and Mike’s so busy staring at him and trying to make sure he’d heard right that the next punch lands square on his jaw and knocks him back.

“Shit!”

Ben’s at his side before Mike has really registered that his feet aren’t under him anymore, stripping off his gloves and reaching out a hand to him; then he seems to change his mind, and sits down beside him instead, leaning back against the ropes.

“You see what I mean - utterly hopeless. Here I am trying to have this conversation properly and I’ve already socked you one.” He looks at Mike sideways through his lashes. “And I haven’t even let you talk yet.”

“Sir, are you sure -”

“Mike.” And that was the tone that made voters sit up and arguments shut down; the one with the core of blue steel. “Whatever we do or don’t talk about, it’s always Ben in here.” He takes a deep breath. “That was her idea too, you know.”

Mike hadn’t known, but he could have guessed, if he’d thought about it. Maggie had been a perfect First Lady because she really was all those things she projected - strong, when she needed to be, smart, of course, beautiful, yes, always, any time of the day or night, but more than that she was warm. She smoothed the way for everybody, just by being herself. When she was in a room people didn’t just want to meet her, they wanted to meet each other. They wanted to _like_ each other. Maggie had called him by his first name before either her husband or her son did, had persuaded him to unbend enough to eat dinner with them occasionally, had encouraged Connor to see him as a friend and a playmate instead of just another guy in a suit.

Maggie had smiled at him, five minutes after he kissed her husband for the first time and was still caught somewhere between guilt and elation and disbelieving shock, and said, “It took you long enough,” and invited them both up to bed.

Mike hasn’t talked about Maggie in a long time. In that awful time after the bridge, when he'd felt like an empty shell and a raw nerve all at once, there hadn't been anyone to talk to, anything to say that had been worth a damn. In the four months since he took back his place at the President’s side, Ben hasn’t mentioned her once, hasn’t talked to Mike about anything personal except for Connor. Maybe he should have known this was coming, once they started the boxing lessons again, once they took back the places where they were always and only Mike and Ben, but by then he was used to the silence, the gap between them. The cold where she used to be. He’d told himself it was enough to be back, that it was better this way anyway, that this was how it always should have been. He’d almost made himself believe it.

In the end, all that comes out is, “I miss her.”

Ben exhales, long and shaky. “Of course you do. We all do.” He smiles wryly. “You know she’d be furious with me, right? For what I’ve done these last couple of years? We all lost her, but Connor and I, we had each other. I made you go through it alone.” And then, hesitantly, “Does Leah even know?”

Mike closes his eyes, drops his head back against the ropes. “She - not really. She knows sometime after college I had an exciting fling with an older married couple. And she knows that before she and I got back together I had a messy break up I don’t like to talk about. I think I disguised you well enough both times.” He looks up. “I don’t blame you, you know. For - after. It was - the whole thing was impossible. An impossible fucking situation. Maybe it was better that we just didn’t see each other. It’s not like a Dear John letter would have helped.”

“I didn’t think I could look at you. But I didn’t _try_. I - when I was down in that bunker, and the whole world had gone straight to hell, and then I heard them say your name, it was like being able to breathe for the first time in hours. I staggered through the White House with lead burning in my guts out to a country pulled back from the brink of armageddon, and all I was thinking was how glad I was that it was you who came for me. If I’d just _talked_ to you after the accident, if I hadn’t been such a fucking coward about it - I don’t think I would have let you go. I don’t think I _could_ have.” He flushes. “That’s sort of what I’ve been trying to say all evening, actually.”

Mike blinks. “This isn’t just clearing the air? You’re asking -”

“I wish to God I knew what I was asking. Maggie was always the one who was good at this. I’d talk to her and suddenly it would all be easy.” A chuckle. “Like, for example, that while it would be wrong of me to make a move on my incredibly hot new security guy, there was nothing stopping me carving out a space where we were equals and he saw me as a person where he just might make a move on me.”

“I always said she was cleverer than both of us put together.”

“She really was.” Ben sighs. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? I was the guy with a wife who was into open relationships and smarter about them than anyone I know, and we both wanted you to be part of our family. And I fucked that up. I left you out in the cold. And now you’re married - to your beautiful blonde college sweetheart, no less - and I’m just the guy who fucked up, who has no-one to give him good advice about this stuff anymore, and how can I say to you ‘come back and be my family again’?”

“But that’s what you want to say.”

“That’s - Mike, I’m at my best when you’re by my side. And at my happiest, too. Whatever you want to do with it, that seems like that’s something you should know.”

“Ben.” And suddenly Mike just is holding Ben’s hand, stroking his thumb across the knuckles, and he hadn’t even known that he was going to move. “I can’t make you any other promises, not yet, but I can make you this one - I will stay by your side for as long as you want me to. It’s where I should be.” He lets go, self-consciously placing his hand on his knee. “As for the rest, I’ll have to talk to Leah, see what she makes of it.” He grins. “Can I tell her you think she’s beautiful?”

Ben startles, then visibly regroups.

“Do you think it would help my case?”

“Couldn’t hurt.”

“Then tell her. And tell her I’d love you both to come have dinner here. And for her to meet Connor. And - that is, if she wants to, of course.”

Mike gets to his feet, pulls Ben up after him.

“I couldn’t say. But she was always pretty intrigued by my stories about you - the ones she knew were about you and the ones she didn’t - so I’d say you were in with at least half a shot.” He rolls his shoulders back a couple of times. “For now, let’s get the gloves back on. I owe you for that suckerpunch.”

Ben smiles, slaps him on the shoulder, and does as he’s told.

~

_Epilogue_

There’s no easy way to say to your wife, ‘Honey, my ex who is also my boss who is also the President would like to have dinner with us. As a getting-to-know-you-date. Which he’s kind of hoping will also be a date-date. And so am I.’ But Mike Banning has faced down snowstorms, terrorists, and more hysterical White House staffers who'd lost the President’s son than he can count, so he figures he ought to be up to the challenge. In the end, he says almost exactly that.

Leah says, “Huh.”

Then she says, “He and the First Lady were the married couple you used to date?”

Mike confirms somewhat sheepishly that they were.

“In that case,” she says, “Paula owes me fifty bucks.”

~

The date goes pretty well.


End file.
